Piper Commanche Plane wreck Mt Glorious?

[alnby]

Can anyone give me guidance to finding the Piper Comanche Plane wreck Mt Glorious? Coordinates anyone. Any guidance would be appreciated.

And any information on the RAAF Avro Anson W2053 that crashed on Mt. Nebo on 7 August 1942. Is there anything left of this wreck?
Cheers.

[Crookedpete]

Alnby,

If it is the plane wreck I am thinking of, the wreckage is at S 27 17.997 E 152 46.463 (dodgy reception under the canopy)

Park on the Mt Glorious Road at approximately S27 17.853 E152 45.238. Go through the gate and walk up the fire trail maybe 50 or 60 metres. There is a track entrance from the fire trail on your right. The entrance is kind of hidden, but once you get on the track it is very easy to follow (an old overgrown logging road I think), although there are the usual problems with fallen trees etc. Follow this trail for about 2.5 kms - about halfway there you will come across an old abandoned logging "arch". At 2.5 kms, you will climb slightly to a rocky knoll under the rain forest. A rock cairn was supposed to mark the turn off, but I never found it. This is approximately 400 metres south of the wreckage. From here, there is a rough trail descending off the ridge line to the north - initially not too steep, by much steeper further along. It was clearly marked with tape in October. It is about 400 metres on this track to the plane wreckage.

The main fuselage is in reasonable condition.

Would be interested to learn about the Mt Nebo wreck if anyone knows.

Pete

[alnby]

I finally got together some track notes together and found an opportunity to get up onto Mt Glorious to complete the walk out to the wreck and back. You will find a couple of really useful and interesting links below with the main track notes I used. Below the track notes I have added a couple of my own observations which should make the trip even easier as far as navigation goes. There are also a couple of pics below to show what to expect to find.
The following link is to the aircraft accident investigation report.
https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/5226233/197700003.pdf
I found the following link really useful for finding the wreck site. It includes the GPS track of another walker who had done the trek and the accompanying track notes can be found below the link.
http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=9126332
Walk starts from Mount Glorious Road and Lepidozamia Road junction and good parking area. Walk along Lepidozamia Road for about 50m or so to the turn off along a generally well defined track, though overgrowth and tree falls in places make the track ill defined for short distances. You pass a large survey marked tree on the left of the track at about 400m from the turn off, the track turns right at the Big Log at 1.5km, then passes an old forestry winch on the right at about 1.8km. At about 2.4km you turn left and leave the top of the ridge. There is a small pile of rocks and pink ribbon tied to the trees to mark this point. The track then descends to the wreck and the track is marked by ribbon tied to trees along the way. It is quite steep, a bit slippery on the rocks in places and the way is uncertain at times so take care and use a gpx track. Wreck is to the left of track by about 10m or so at the bottom near a big fallen tree. On the return the left branch of part of the track takes you to a quite overgrown area, so I backtracked to the right branch of the track. Both branches were marked by ribbon. A 4.5 hour return trip at mature gentlemans pace. If you miss the turn off the ridge down to the wreck, you will come to a trig station and further on to Mt D'Aguilar peak about a km past the wreck turnoff.

My observations and hopefully helpful hints.
Lepidozamia Rd is found on the right 5.5km past Maiala NP picnic area. Maiala is just past the village of Mt Glorious. 5.5km on as you drive down a slight slope you will see the bitumen road about to swing left and a dirt road heading off to the right. Pull into the dirt road and you will see a forestry gate 50m in front of you. This is your parking area.
Probably the trickiest part of the walk is finding the track entrance off this initial dirt road – and it’s not very difficult. Step past the gate and it took me 83 normal paces up the dirt road to find the trail on the right. The first 10mts of the track are not very defined but it soon becomes obvious you are on the trail and as you head down the first slope it opens to almost a full width fire trail briefly.
After some 1.4km (or 15-20mins), you will possibly notice a trail leading off to the left and downhill. You want to take the more defined track up to the right. You’ve chosen the right track if you’re now climbing up a fairly step section. At the top of this climb you will come to a clear flat area (which I’m guessing has been used for camping). There’s a fairly large log lying at the back of this cleared area. To the right you’ll find the track you want to keep following. Soon you’ll pass the old rusted forestry equipment rusting by the trail and then there’s another climb up to a knoll which is clearly marked on any topo map. Once you’ve reached a flatter section of the track immediately start looking for the turnoff toward the wreck.
The first thing I saw was an orange tape tied around a tree about 15mts off to the left of the track. Then I noticed a small stone cairn and a tree with a couple of blazes cut into it. 1 an arrow pointing toward the tape. Turn to the left and start following the tapes. The first 100mts or so is fairly flat through fairly open forest. Then it turns further left and steeply downhill. Reminiscent of the last bit of the walk into the Stinson wreck in Lamington NP. About 300mts further on down the slope and you’ve arrived. It took me 15mins to walk from the wreck back out to join the main trail. Do keep your eyes on the tapes as it would be pretty easy to get off course going down this last section to the wreck.
As it’s aluminium aircraft wreckage; there is still a fair bit of it remaining on the site. Keep in mind that the more ‘important’ parts were removed to help with the investigation and also that the lone occupant of the aircraft died in the crash.
The whole trip from the car park to the wreck and back only took me about 3 hrs. But I was on my own and moved fairly quickly and had no navigational

[alnby]

A couple of pics from the day.

[Champion_Munch]

Thanks for the detailed trip notes alnby, this certainly sounds like something worth checking out one day

[Sammy38]

Thanks, That's one for the Bucket list.

[tas-man]

I remember searching for the Piper Commanche as part of the bushwalking search and rescue group FMR, and the struggle with comb searching through dense lantana thickets! There had been quite a few searches early in 1977 that the bushwalking fraternity had been called out to assist the police with, and Federation Mountain Rescue got a bit of publicity in the Courier Mail after the plane crash. Here's a copy from my scrap book.

This is a link to some info about the Avro Anson crash in 1941 - http://www.ozatwar.com/ozcrashes/qld118.htm